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Archives For September 2009

The Source of Purpose

September 29, 2009 — 2 Comments

Purpose

John 17:4 “Having finished the work you gave me to do, I brought you glory on earth.”

Philippians 3:14 “I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.”

Many people have been taught how to manage life via a “goals and objectives” model, but few have been instructed to give thought to the SOURCE of those objectives.  Scripture teaches that purpose precedes planning.  So how do we balance the activities of our life with the purpose from God?  Which comes first?

Purpose is NOT the adding up of new activities.  It is not realized while trying to meet certain goals.  An objective is defined as a basic aim that a person takes in order to accomplish a predetermined end.  Just as activities without objectives are unfulfilling, so are objectives without purpose.  Staying busy racking up successes is not helping you find your purpose.  Consider this a warning: Achievement can be stimulating, but it is not fulfilling over the long haul of life.

What is purpose?  Purpose is simply what God wants our life to add up to and why.

The only difference for the non-believer is who he is pleasing with his purpose.  Purpose is gained by understanding the program and story of God.  If you don’t know God, you can’t know how to participate in His purpose for your life.  It’s so simple, it’s hard.

Paul (Saul of Tarsus) perfectly illustrates this for us in Acts 9.  As he is traveling on the Damascus road he has a supernatural encounter with Jesus.  After Jesus gets his attention, Paul asked these two questions: “Who are you Lord?” and “What do you want me to do?”  The first question is one of purpose, and the second question is one of objectives and activities.

The key is in knowing God and allowing Him to determine and direct your life. It all starts with knowing Him.  How can we find purpose without knowing God?  You can’t.

We need to concern ourselves with what God concerns himself with.  Then, and only then, will God’s purpose for us be revealed.

How much of your life is directed by eternal focus (sensitive to what God is concerned with), and how much is strictly temporal focus (survival, getting ahead, doing what looks good)?

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The Friday Bag

September 25, 2009 — 1 Comment

Tony Kummer is a big fan of jonathancliff.com. He’s posted on his widely-read blog that I’m #1.  Of course, my wife and children already knew I was #1; but now the world knows.  My fear is that now he’s set me up for failure.  I’ve watched Behind the Music on VH1, and if I follow that model for success then I’m sure drug use or inappropriate words to the press will follow.  I hope I recover in time for this Sunday morning.  (Thanks Tony!)

I’ve been car shopping this week.  For those NOT in the know, my beautiful, talented, intelligent, wonderful and loving wife crashed my car last week.  It’s totaled, and now I get to take my pennies and look for something else.  I loathe car shopping, ranking it up there with medical procedures that involve my doctor putting gloves on.  I know that not every car salesman is an evil person, but I need someone to redeem their kind.

Speaking of that wife of mine, have you read her thoughts on the crash?  She’s an A+ writer, and knocks it out of the park with her Sinking post on lostinlaundry.com.  There is even a church in Oklahoma that read the post verbatim to their congregation last Sunday.  Amazing!

I’m 2 weeks into Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey at our church.  Starr and I are taking it together, and it’s really kicking my butt.  I’m a very frugal person, then again I’m not.  But I really am, but I guess I’m really not.  The one thing I’ve learned in 2 weeks is that I want to have more control over my financial life.  We’ll see how that goes.

I’m 43 days into a 90 day project.  I’ve only missed one day and I blame Kenny Conley and his wife for it. (However I forgive them for the nice gifts they brought me.)  I fill you in when I’m finished.  Don’t worry, it’s perfectly legal.

I just posted my thoughts yesterday, but it’s been a strange week talking to High School students at their school chapel.  Very, very different.  I think I’m gonna grow a soul patch on my chin to fit in better next time…or maybe not.

I’ve been sending out my Kidsplace Unscripted training videos on Vimeo to my volunteer team for about 5 months now, and I think I’ve hit a wall.  I send them through constantcontact.com so I can see who has opened it and viewed the video.  Where I had a 100% watch rate 3 months ago, I know am down to about 25%.  I’ve got to mix it up a little, but need some suggestions.  Got any?

I’ve made some major changes to the Child Dedication process at Trinity.  For the past 45 years at our church, parents have dedicated their kids by walking them up front for prayer at the special “dedication service.”  This year I’m attempting to be more intentional about what parents take away from the experience, and have set some hoops up for families to jump through before dedicating them.  I had quite a few people tell me it would never work, and families don’t want to attend a class, meet certain conditions, etc…; but they’ve been proven wrong.  My goal was 5 families, and sitting with 5 more days to register…I have 14 families signed up!  Thank you Jesus!

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Audience Changes

September 23, 2009 — 2 Comments

I’ve been speaking this week at the Trinity Christian Upper School chapel services.  Wow, what a change.  When your primary audience is grade school students, and you move to High School students it gets scary fast!

What’s so different?

  1. The kids don’t laugh as easily.  It is so much easier to get 500 grade school students laughing, than to get 500 high school students to laugh.  I was rusty with my teenage jokes, but I’m getting better.  They’re a much bigger fan of self-deprecating jokes, and I’m a pro at pointing out my dorkiness publicly.  It’s really a gift.
  2. It’s not like I’m used to using puppets on stage, but I often have something to work with when teaching kids.  When talking for 12 minutes a day with a room full of upper school students, it gets much more tricky to use props.  I’ve elected to go without, and it makes me feel naked to not have something in my hands.
  3. I’ve been using a microphone connected to a cord.  That is strange, when you’re used to headsets.  I’m the ultimate hand talker, always swinging them around and pointing.  Using a corded microphone has forced me to stay in one place and keep my hands down.  (I know, I’m spoiled…)
  4. High school kids are supremely more serious than 3rd grade girls.  Go figure…
  5. I can’t remember the last time I talked to much of any group before 8:30 in the morning.  My brain hasn’t fully woken up, and I’m trying to wake up a room full of equally tired students.  Wonder if I could pass out some 5 hour energy to everyone?
  6. These kids are so much closer to “real life” than most of the students I talk to.  I’ve been forcing myself to remember that many of these kids will be having kids, getting married, finishing college, and setting patterns for the rest of their lives in the next 5 years of living.  That’s scary!

So kudo’s to the Jr. High and Sr. High pastors out there.  Keep up the great work and thanks for being cooler than me, and not rubbing it in!

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Can a video lead a child to Christ?

September 18, 2009 — 6 Comments

Salvation Video

Check out this video produced by the Content Development team at LifeChurch.tv.   It specifically walks a child through a simple, straight-forward presentation of the gospel.  A great tool for any kids ministry and parent that desires to solidify this truth in their kids.

Let’s state the obvious facts first.  There isn’t really anything out there like this for kids.  It’s animated, clean, straight-forward, and kid-friendly.  This is unique, and anyone that works with kids in a church environment will immediately think so.  Gina McClain, of the previously mentioned lifechurch.tv, asked if my readers would share some opinions on what you see or don’t see in this video.

Here’s some food for thought:

Is the video effective at meeting its intended purpose? When compared to sharing Christ in a one-on-one relationship, where does this measure up?  If sharing Christ face to face is a 10 on a scale of 1-10; then where does this video rank on that same scale?  Is it a 5?  Is it a 9 or 10?

What ages would it be most effective with?  1st & 2nd graders or 4th & 5th graders?

Anyone done missions work with kids?  Would something like this be more effective in another country (of course in their own spoken language) than it might be in the states?

On a purely theological level, is this video correct?  Is it misleading?

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Fear of Commitment

September 16, 2009 — Leave a comment

opportunity

In a previous post I addressed the idea of seizing opportunities, and the two fears that keep us from grasping those opportunities when they come available.  The first fear that leads to us missing opportunities is the fear of our own weakness. The second fear is the all too common fear of commitment.

Numbers 13:32 “The land is too large to conquer.”

The Israelites used this as an excuse, because they were afraid of the commitment they would be making.  They looked at all that God promised, and wondered how they could ever achieve all of that.  The sad truth is that God never intended his promise to be an overnight project.  Instead of seizing the opportunity to take the promised land, the Israelites were scared away by the audacity of the task before them.  The had their eyes on the destination, but failed to see the value of the journey.

Moses would later address this to the children of the missed opportunity.

Deuteronomy 7:22 “When the Lord your God forces those nations out of the land, he will do it little by little ahead of you. You won’t be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will grow too many in number.”

I love it.  Little by little.  What a great promise to me as I sometimes get spooked by what opportunities God might be setting before me.  God isn’t asking me to be an overnight success as a father, husband, or servant.  He’s asking me to seize the audacious opportunity, and have faith that he will help me little by little.  Don’t be scared of the bigness of your own dreams!
Learn to see the value in the journey.  After you’ve seized the great destination that this new opportunity presents, it’s time to enjoy the ride.  Let God speak to you day by day, little by little.  See the journey by spending less time always looking ahead at the difference being made, and spending more time letting God teach us through the journey.

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